THE Hibs manager has hailed the return of striker Paul Heffernan and believes that his team will go up the goalscoring charts in the coming weeks.

HIBS manager Terry Butcher has hailed the return of striker Paul Heffernan – just as the team has rediscovered its scoring touch.

The Easter Road outfit had the Premiership’s lowest strike rate earlier in the campaign but a run of nine goals in their last four matches has helped them to overtake fellow low scorers Hearts and Partick Thistle.

The Leith side, who have netted just 19 times from 21 league games, still trail behind Aberdeen (32), ?Motherwell (31), Dundee United (38) and Inverness (27) in the top six and even St Johnstone and ?Kilmarnock (both 25).

However, Butcher believes the goals scored in the wins against Ross County, Killie Hearts and in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Dundee United show improvements are being made in attack as well as defence where the Hibees have enjoyed five clean sheets in their new gaffer’s nine games in charge.

He said: “We are making progress. The players are scoring goals again, so we are certainly creating chances and working hard.